Founder of oceanography and software firms, sailor, Navy veteran
Fred Feyling. (Courtesy photo)
Anders “Fred” Feyling of Harvard died Feb. 12, 2014, at home after a short illness. Born in Boston to Margot Asbjornsen Feyling and Per L. Feyling in 1928, Fred was a true son of Norway. His mother was born in Kristiansand, and his father was raised in Egersund, Norway. Fred spent several summers visiting there as a child, blending easily with extended family. Starting school in Watertown after returning from a summer in Norway, he spoke only Norwegian but quickly decided that an American kid needed an American name, and he became “Fred” to all his friends.
He attended Belmont High School and received his mechanical engineering degree from Northeastern University in 1952. Working as a co-op student for his father’s company, Kirkland Industries, he had a role building an early model of the Polaroid instant camera under contract to Edwin Land, who advised him to invest in Polaroid to affirm his commitment to the prototype. He also worked for Fred Ruland and DuPont Savannah River after graduation. Forgoing his military deferment, Fred attended Navy Officer Candidate School in Newport, R.I., and served as an officer in Adak, Alaska, and the Great Lakes before returning to civilian life. He again worked for Kirkland and with partners founded an oceanographic instrumentation firm, Geodyne Corporation. It was sold to EG&G in 1972. Fred held several patents relating to deep-sea oceanography and sonar side-scan technology.
Fred next embarked on numerous ventures and adventures, including marine archeology projects in Greece with Peter Throckmorton and Harold “Doc” Edgerton, who also brought him to assist in the search for the ironclad Monitor. He later helped to retrieve a section of the Snow Squall, a Maine clipper shipwreck in the Falkland Islands, and surveyed a British ship there, the Lady Elizabeth. During the 1970s Fred purchased the Dana Place Inn, was a founder of the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation, and launched the first condominium project in Jackson, N.H. He also joined with other investors to build a marina, Antilles Yachting Services, an early sailboat lease-back operation in the U.S. Virigin Islands.
In 1980 he was married for the first time, to Lynda Moulton, with whom he partnered in an early software company designing and licensing content management systems for government agencies and corporate libraries. They ran the company for 20 years, during which time they built a home in Harvard that Fred designed. In his woodworking shop he did much of the finish work and built furniture and artistic features for the home. In his final years he loved planning new projects for their property, taking on machine repair projects for friends and family, fly fishing, visiting art galleries, and vacationing in Mt. Desert, Maine, where he and Lynda spent time every year for more than 30 years.
In addition to his wife Lynda, Fred leaves his sister Anne MacDonald, of Sun City West, Ariz.; nieces, grandnephews and nieces; many cousins in the U.S. and Norway; and numerous close friends of all ages, including school friends with whom, until recently, he spent many days sailing and boating off Cape Cod. A memorial service will be held in the spring. Gifts to the Northeastern University Empower campaign and Friends of Acadia National Park may be made in Fred’s memory. For more information, see www.badgerfuneral.com.
